Apparatus for launching life-boats.



R. HUNTINGTON.

APPARATUS FOR LAUNCHING LIFE BOATS.

APPLICATION man act. 19. 1912.

' Patented Oct. 24,1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET I.

m: NLIRRIS I'Erzns ca. Imam-1.1 "40.. wasnwaron n R. HUNTINGTON.

APPARATUS FOR LAUNCHING LIFE BOATS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 19. 1912.

Patented Oct. 24; 1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

PsvsRs co PMOTD-LITNOH WASNINC R. HUNTINGTON.

APPARATUS FOR LAUNCHING LIFE BOATS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 19. 1912.

Patented Oct. 24, 1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3- R. HUNTINGTON.

APPARATUS FOR LAUNCHING LIFE BOATS.

APPLICATION HLED OCT. 19, I912.

Patented Oct. 24, 1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4- APPARATUS FOR LAUNCI-IING LIFE-BOATS.

Application filed October 19, 1912.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT HUNTINGTON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Medford, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, andwhose post-office address is No. 150 State street, Boston,Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Apparatus for LaunchingLife-Boats, of which the following description, in connection with theaccompanying drawing, is a specification, like characters on the drawingrepresenting like parts.

This invention relates to apparatus for launching life boats from thedeck of a vessel, and has for one of its objects to provide a noveldevice of this nature by which the life boats may be lowered equallywell from either side of the vessel and also to provide a novel deviceby which the various life boats can be lowered one after the othersuccessively without the necessity of raising a tackle and falls eachtime that a boat has been cast off.

Life boats are now almost universally lowered by means of davits andfalls and tackle suspended therefrom. The boat to be lowered is hookedonto the tackles and then the ropes of the two falls, one at each end ofthe boat, are paid out to lower the boat. In order to lower a secondboat it is necessary to draw in the rope of the fall to bring thetackles back up to the deck again, and this stop in the operation isalmost always a source of delay because of the fact that when the tackleis disconnected from the lowered boat the ropes of the falls will almostinvariably twist, thus necessitating the untangling of the ropes beforethe tackle can be elevated.

With my improvements a boat can be lowered and cast off and then anotherboat can be immediately connected to the lowering apparatus without thenecessitating of elevating a tackle block or other connecting device. Iaccomplish this object by employing an endless chain arrangement forlowering the boats which is so constructed that the boats can beconnected thereto at any point Specification'of Letters Patent.

Patented Uct. 24, 1191 6.

Serial No. 726,718.

have illustrated a preferred embodiment of my invention, Figure 1 is anend view of the vessel showing the arrangement and operation of myboat-handling apparatus; Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the way the boatswill be stored on the deck of the vessel; Fig. 3 is an enlarged view ofthe davit and lowering apparatus; Fig. 4 is a side view of the apparatusfor handling one of the boats; Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3showing the davits swung out-board and with a boat ready to be lowered;Fig. 6 is a diagram view showing the way in which the trolley rope 26 isconnected.

1 designates a vessel having a deck 2 on which the life boats 3 arestored, said boats being sustained by boat-supporting.cradles 100. Inthis invention the life boats are lowered through the medium of anendless chain fall 4 which is suspended from davits 5 that are pivotedto the deck of a vessel. A pair of davits and endless chain falls arerequired for lowering each boat, but as the two davits and their fallsare the same, a description of one will sufiice for both.

Each davit is pivoted to the deck of the vessel at 7 and is shown asprovided at its upper end with a laterally-extending portion 8 whichsustains two direction pulleys 10 over which the endless chain fall apasses. Each davit also sustains a sheave or pulley 9 situated to rotateabout an axis at right angles to that of the pulleys 10. The endlesschain fall 4: passes up over the pulleys 10, thence down around acontrolling sprocket Wheel 11, thence up over the pulley or sheave 9,and thence down the side of the vessel to the water, and thence back tothe pulley 1.0 again, thereby making an endless fall with a loopextending from the davits to the water. The controlling sprocket 11 maybe mounted in any suitable place, either on the deck or on the davit,and means are associated therewith for controlling the lower ingmovement of the fall. In the embodiment of the invention herein shownthis controlling sprocket is carried by the davit 5 and is fast on ashaft 12 journaled in suitable bearings formed in the davit and havingrigid thereon a gear 13 which meshes with a pinion 14 that in turn isrigid with a friction drum 15 sustained by the davit.

1,6 is a strap brake which encircles the brake drum 15, one end of saidstrap being connected to the-davit at 17', and the. other endbe'ingconn'ected"to anoperating-dea er adapted to be secured to a eleat20 formed" on the davit thereby to hold the brake in operation. p p

The boats 3 are provided at each end with hooks-21 adapted tohookinto-any one of the links; of the chain 4. In lowering a boat it iscarriedto'the side-of-the vessel 1 and the hooks'21 of the'boat arehooked into the links of the endless chain falls 4, as shown in Figa3.The davits-arethen swung outwardly into'thegposition shown in Figs. 1and 5 thus-carrying the suspended-boat 3'beyond-the side ofthe vessel.The boat can be loaded either when it is in the position shown in Fig. 3or when in the position'shown in Fig. 5, and during this operation thebrake bands 16 are firmly applied, thus locking the sprocket wheels 11:from movement and holding the falls 4 perfectly stationary. Whenthe'boat isloaded andiit isidesiredto lower it the braking pressureof-the brake bands 16 is eased up, and as the weight in the boat 3 issustained entirely by-one run ofeach of the falls, said run of v eachfall will be=paid out and the other run will beltaken up, as will beobvious. By manipulating the brakes 16 the speed at whichthe boat islowered can beregulated to a nicety so'that the boatsmaybe quicklyloweredwithout dangerto its occupants.

Wh envany boat3 has reached the-waterit canbe readily disconnected fromthe falls and the falls arethen immediately ready for the lowering ofanother boat because the boats- 3- can be hooked onto the fallsat anypoint. One boat after another can, therefore, he rapidlylowered withoutthe necessity of-takingtimeto return the tackle from the lowered boat tothe deck of the vessel by'windingup or drawing in the rope. I considerthis endless chain-fall construction as a very important feature of myinvention. 4 ;-Fro1 n the above description it will be noted thatinlaunching any boat the davits 5 are-swungfrom their in-board positionshown in Fig. 3-to their out-board position shownin Fig. 5. I haveprovided herein a simple mechanism for giving the davits their swingingmotion which mechanism is so constructed that both davits are. swungsimultaneously. The mechanism herein shown'comprises a segmental rack 32fixed to the floor of the'deek at the footzof' each davit and-apinion-33 journaled to'the davit and meshingwiththe rack sothat byturning the pinion the davit will be swung forwardly or backwardly. Foroperating the davits simultaneously, I provide a gearing mechanismconnectingthe two pinions 33. Asherein shown'each pinionis fast on ashaft 34 journaled in the davit which has fast thereon a bevel gear35Lthat meshes with another bevel gear 36 fast on a shaft 37 alsojournaled-in the davit. Each shaft 37 has a'bevel gear 38 thereon on itslower end whichmeshes with a bevel gear 39 fast on a shaft 10 thatextends from one davit to another and preferably constitutes the pivoton which the davits turn. The shaft 10 is journal ed in suitablebearings 11 secured to the .deck 2. One or .both of the shafts 31 maybeprovided with a crank 42 so that by turning either crank both pinions 33will be operated thereby swinging the davits forwardly or backwardly.

420 designates a stop associated with the segmental gear 32 for limitingthe inward swinging movement of the davit and the outward movement islimited by a stay member 43 i'n'the form of a cord which is connected toone end of the davit and is anchored at the other end to the deck of thevessel.

Inorder to permit the boats to be lowered with equal facility fromeither side of the deck of the vessel, I propose to store the boats inniline extending across the deck of the vessel, as shown in Fig. 2. I alsopropose :to employ a boat transferring device which will now bedescribed for taking the boats one at a time from their resting placeand delivering them to the lowering device. This boat-transferringdevice consists of two rails 22 extending across the deck of the vesselabove theboats 3. Mounted on each rail is a carrier 23 provided with ablock and tackle suspension device 24 adapted to hook into ahook 25 onthe boat. The carriers 23 are each trolleyed back and forth on thetracks or rails 22 by means of a trolley rope 26'. I have provided atrolley rope rigging which is easily operated and which is soconstructed that there is never any slack therein which can becometwisted up. As herein shown, the carrier 23 has connected to each sidethereof a pulley block 27, 2S, and each rail 22 has at each end thereofa double pulley block, said pulley blocks be ing designated 29 and 30,respectively. One end ofthe rope 26 is connected to the pulley block 27.and said rope-passes thence around one of the pulleys in the pulleyblock 30, thence around the pulley and the pulley block 27, thencearound the other pulley in the pulley block 30, thence the entire lengthof'the rail 22 and around one of the pullevs in the pulley block 29,thence around the pullev and the pulley block 28, thence around'theother pulley in the pulley block 29., and thence to the pulley block 28to which it is permanently secured. By means of thisrigging each of thecarriers 23 can be moved longitudinally of its track 22 by crank 42 isoperated to turn the pinions 33 thereby swinging the davits into theposi tion shown in'Figs. l and 5, thus carrying the boat outside of thevessel. During this time thebrakes 16 are firmly set so as to lock thefalls against movement. The boat may then be loaded, and when it hasbeen loaded the brakes are released sufficiently to allow the loadedboat to be lowered by its own weight. While the first boat is beinglowered the carriers 23 may be operated to bring another boat intoposition to be connected to the endless chain falls, and as soon as thefirst boat has been lowered and cast off the davits are returned to theinboard position shown in Fig. 3, the brakes are set and the second boatis immediately hooked onto the endless chain falls. The davits are thenswung outwardly into the outboard position shown in Fig. 5, the secondboat is loaded and then lowered as above described. This operation offilling and lowering the boats can be accomplishedquickly and withoutany loss of time because there is nothing about the rigging which canbecome tangled and because no time need be lost in returning a tacklefrom a lowered boat back up to the deck of the vessel before a secondboat can be lowered.

I propose to have a boat-lowering device such as above described at eachside of the vessel 1 at each end of the track 22 so that if desiredboats can be lowered from either side of the vessel. By means of myimproved boat-transferring device the boats 3 can readily be deliveredat either side of the vessel 1, and, therefore, all the boats can belowered from that side of the vessel at which the conditions are mostfavorable. Further, if desired the davits on both sides of the vesselmight be used simultaneously.

T have used herein the term endless chain as referring to the falls, butit is not necessary that these falls should be in the form of chainscomposed of links, as they might be any suitable flexible member, suchas a rope or cable provided it had provision for attaching the boats 3thereto at a series of points along its length. A chain composed oflinks is a convenient form of endless fall, but my invention is notlimited to the use of a chain. I have used the words endless chain as aconvenient expression for describing the endless fall.

Upon referring to Fig. 2 it will be seen that the distance between thetracks 22 is greater than the boats 23. The advantage of thisconstruction is that if an accident occurs and the vessel 1 sinks beforeall the boats can be lowered, those boats which have not been loweredcan be unlashed and will float as the vessel 1 sinks, and as the vesselsinks they will float up between the tracks and will not be caught bythe tracks as would be the case if the tracks were nearer together.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is 1. In a boat-launching device, thecombination with a vessel, of two davits mounted to swing over the sideof the vessel, means connecting said davits by which they may besimultaneously operated from a single point, and endless boat-loweringmembers sustained by the davits.

2. In a device of the class described the combination with a vessel oftwo davits each presenting a forked lower end which is hinged to thevessel, a segmental gear fixed to the deck of the vessel and situatedbetween the arms of the fork of each davit, a gear journaled in the forkend of each davit and meshing with its segmental gear, means connectingsaid gears whereby both may be rotated in unison from a single point,thereby to swing both davits simultaneously inboard and out-board, andendless chain falls sustained by the davits.

8. In a device of the class described, the combination with a vessel, ofa davit presenting a' forked lower end which is hinged to the vessel, asegmental gear fixed to the deck of the vessel and situated between thebranches of the forked end, a gear journaled in said forked end andmeshing with the fixed segmental gear, means carried by the davit foroperating said gear whereby the davit may be swung inboard or outboard,and endless chain falls sustained by the davit and by which the boat maybe lowered.

4.- In a device of the class described, the combination with two davits,each having a forked lower end, of a segmental gear for each davit fixedto the deck of the vessel and situated between the arms of the forkthereof, a shaft extending from one davit to the other and on which bothdavits are pivotally mounted, a gear carried by each davit meshing withits segmental gear, connections between each gear and said shaft wherebythe gears may be operated in unison to swing both davits simultaneouslyinboard or outboard.

5. In a device of the class described, the combination with two davits,each having a forked lower end, of a segmental gear for each davit fixedto the deck of the vessel and situated between the arms of the forkthereof, a shaft extending from one davit to theother and on Whichbothdavits are piv- In testimony whereof, I have signed my otallymounted, a gear carried by each davlt name to this specificatlon, 1n thepresence 10 meshlng W1th lts segmental gear, connections of twosubscribing witnesses.

between each gear and said shaft whereby ROBERT HUNTINGTON 5 the gearsmay be operated in unison to swing both davits simultaneously inboard orout- \Vitnesses: 7 board, and endless-chain falls carried by CHARLES(Jr. MAGER, both davits. THOMAS J. DRUMMOND.

Copies of this patent may be obtained forfi ve cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0;

